Broken Bottles & Empty Houses
by SparkleLikeASparklyThing
Summary: 'Each other is all the Victors have left, apart from some broken bottles and a big empty house filled with ghosts.' No, the Victors are not a family. But together, they are a lot harder to kill. One-Shot about the Victor's relationships with each other.


**Hi guys! I wanted to write something like this for a while. Don't hate me if I forgot your favourite Victor! I didn't write Peeta because I really struggle to write from his perspective! I don't own the Hunger Games**.** This is just my view on the Victor's relationship, so you may have interpreted it in a different way**!

The Victors are not a family.

They are a group of traumatized individuals, on a long, slow road to recovery that they might never reach. The nightmares, the panic, the blood on their hands - having someone around who gets it really helps.

These messed up killers, experienced with murder at a young age, are corrupted and warped into shadows of their former selves by the torture they endured. Nothing is left. Their families and friends, shot at by the firing squad, brutally murdered before them. Houses, burnt to ashes in the ground. Districts they were once proud yo live in, squandering in the pain and starvation and death. Death that these Victors practically caused.

It is why Haymitch drinks his fear, using the heady scent of alcohol to drown out painful memories. Others may try to wean him off the drink; the Victors sit and pass the bottle around, reminiscing on a simpler time, because they remember how it felt.

What of Johanna Mason, District Seven Victor? There is no longer anyone she loves still alive. So she hits things with an axe, wishing it was the Capitol and revenge she could take for her loved ones who couldn't. The other Victors, lost and alone, know exactly why she does it: it is easier to be angry and vengeful than show sadness. Sadness is weakness, and weaknesses get you murdered.

Finnick Odair, with his secrets and his sugar cubes, fell in love with a mad Victor. At least, as a survivor, she wouldn't be taken away from him. But no one is ever sure in Panem. He left Annie Cresta in District Four, and went to fight in the Quarter Quell. It was her voice her heard through a Jabberjays beak, her tortured screams that drove him to the brink of madness. So as he lies in a strangers bed, it is her he thinks of, as he steals their secrets, hoping one day he can use them against the Capitol.

The Morphlings, who drown their memories in drugs and painting. The tranquillity of the soft brush strikes on clean canvas makes the fears numb, leaving them feeling safe and secure. The drugs help them to forget. The Victors help them to cope.

Annie Cresta, mad and scared and a survivor. Being left as scarred as she was, she didn't seem to win anything. She slams her hands over her ears, and curls into herself, blocking out painful memories and the bitter reality that is Panem. She has Finnick, and he feels her pain. Slowly, she removes hands from her ears, and interlocks them with the Finnick's, comes out of her ball, and curls into his muscular body. He is easier to talk to. He understands her pain. Even Johanna felt her loss, after the Quarter Quell, when Blight was killed. Annie could still hear her District partners screams, and feel the warm droplets of blood that splattered her pale skin. Even some of the Victors don't understand that. But she sticks with then anyway, because they know how it feels to lose people you care about.

Wiress of District Three lost the ability to finish her train of thought, her sentences. This killed her more than losing a leg like Peeta, because now that she couldn't communicate, she was entirely lost to the world. But Beetee understood her, and the other Victors let her write down all she had to say. No, they sure are hell weren't patient, but they slowly helped her to communicate her feelings, however unknowingly, and returned parts of her freedom, her life.

Beetee, with his wire and electricity and his memories. Writhing bodies, electrically charged and dying, slowly slipping from life. It is the cannon sound that affects him the most - affects all the Victors. It signifies that there is no longer anything they can do, makes the murder real. They know that they have taken a human life, and even if it is normal, it kills the Victor too, because what gives them the right to brutally murder someone? When Beetee questioned the legality of the games, he didn't just appeal to the Capitol. He spoke to the other Victors, questioning the legality of them being forced to murder and hoping that they would understand that it wasn't their fault. It was the Capitol. Underneath his calm exterior, Beetee was the angriest of all

And Katniss Everdeen? She lost everything to the Games. Her mother, hiding from the painful memories. Her sister, Primrose, forced into a Rebellion which wouldn't have even been necessary if the Games weren't happening. Gale, her best friend, lost to anger and jealousy because he fell in love with her, and she fell for Peeta. The boy with the bread beat the hunter, and Gale killed her sister. No, Gale's weapons killed her sister. But she couldn't shake the feeling that it was him sending Prim up in flames. Innocence cannot survive in a corrupted universe.

Most of the Victors who could have helped her are dead now. Haymitch talks to her, when he's not drunk, telling her that it will get better, and she will slowly realise that it's okay to be terrified, because they are safer now. Peeta helps to calm her, with kisses and warm, soft embraces. Sometimes Johanna Mason will call her, and they'll talk for hours just about life. They get on a lot better now. Not perfect, but better.

No, the Victors are not a family. They are scared and messed up and depressed, but together, they are stronger. They all have nightmares and memories and fears, but together, they are the strongest amongst many weaker beings. No, they don't always get along. Sometimes they throw knives at each other - sometimes they break someone's nose.

However they stand, hands linked through the others, fingers gripping tight like a lifeline. Each other is all they have left, apart from a few broken bottles and a huge empty house filled with ghosts. Together, the nightmares are more bearable. Together, they could fuel a rebellion without batting an eyelid. No, maybe they don't love each other. Love is a weakness, so even they don't acknowledge it. But it's there, a mutual respect and understanding, and it makes the night easier to take on. Together, they are powerful leaders and friends.

Together, they are a lot harder to kill.


End file.
